Lady Down on Love
by jagwizkid
Summary: A songfic.  A man, a bar, a song... one love dies as another begins


_**Well... I dont know all the rules to all the songfics that are being posted lately, but this one wouldnt leave me alone so I thought I'd throw it in the mix. Not my fave story but I hope you'll like it. It really is C/G but told from another perspective. Dont own anything though I wish I did. Not sure who owns Lie to Me anymore... besides the hearts of us its fans. But the song belongs to Alabama. So... hope you enjoy.._

The man sat at a dark corner of the bar looking over the establishment and its patrons. The music leaned toward the country side normally but tonight of all nights was falling more to the old country range. It wasn't his favorite bar, but for tonight it fit. There was no other place that he could imagine being on the day his divorce was final than the place it had all started.

He listened to the song playing as he watched her walk in. There was a portion of him that was surprised that she would be here today, but realistically, he knew she was there for the same reason she was… to make peace and bid farewell to their past.

_It's her first night on the town since she was just eighteen__  
><em>_A lady down on love and out of hope and dreams__  
><em>_The ties that once bound her now are broke away__  
><em>_And she's like a baby, just learning how to play_

He watched her as she sat at the bar. The sadness he saw in her struck him in his chest. He was the sole cause of it.

He thought back to their wedding. He would have been happy just going to a justice of the peace but she had her heart set on the big wedding. She'd never told him but he was sure that she had been the little girl dressing up in the frilly dresses and spending her growing up years planning the elaborate wedding of her dreams. He knew that she loved the Cinderella wedding…what little girl didn't? And when it came their time, he let her plan to her heart's content. It was a little girls dream come true, frills, sparkle and romance out the roof. In a word it was perfect.

_She never thought that love could ever end so soon_

_Her mind drifts back in time to a mid-summer moon_

_When he asked her to marry and she glady said O.K_

_And a woman came to be from the girl of yesterday_

He wondered what she was thinking. Was she remembering the good, the bad, or the ugly of their relationship? There had been good, really there had. She had filled him with hope beyond belief when she had agreed to marry him despite knowing how he had struggled with the drugs. He had promised her that he would show her that he could be a good man, a good husband, a good provider. And he had… for a time. But that's when the ugly of the relationship came about… for some reason he still could not put into words, he had chosen the drugs over this beautiful woman.

_Now she's a lady down on love__  
><em>_She needs somebody to gentley pick her up__  
><em>_She's got her freedom, but she'd rather be bound__  
><em>_To a man who would love her and never let her down_

She loved the idea of being married. She loved coming home to him. She loved being a wife. Sure it wasn't easy, building her own career, a name for herself in the psychology community, finding the time for the research she loved, but she had done it and done it willingly and come home to him, trying her best to meet his every need.

If only he could have been what she needed. He had been what she wanted. He remembered the look in her eyes as they made love, the smile on her face when he would walk in the door at night. But that was many years ago… long before he had decided to put everyone and everything else above her. The fact was, he owed her everything he had, everything he was… well the good parts anyway. She carried him where he was. It was because of her that he'd gotten the job at DoJ. He owed everything he was to her. And looking at her now, eyes focused on the glass in front of her… he saw how he'd repayed her… with betrayal and hurt beyond belief.

_Well, I know a lady that's down on her love__  
><em>_'Cause I used to hold her and have that special touch__  
><em>_But work took me away from home late at nights__  
><em>_And I wasn't there when she turned out the lights__  
><em>_Then both of us got lonely and I gave into lust__  
><em>_And she just couldn't live with a man she couldn't trust_

He'd not been there for her. He hadn't been there for her in the good times. He'd never really been a sports person and he knew that having been a huge basketball fan in her childhood, and having Duke University as an alma mater and still being on the east coast, that college basketball season was a big thrill for her. Every year she asked him to watch the games with her… particularly the ACC championship, it might not be the Final Four, but when it came to Duke University basketball, it was a huge deal.. and every year he would turn her down. He didn't know how to feel when she invited her best friend, a man, over to watch the ACC tournament games with her. He would just hide in his office until it was over. Yeah, there was a bit of jealously as he'd listen to her cheer and the man would laugh at her excitement, and knew he was welcome to join them, that this man was only there because he refused year after year, but he would never let his pride, or he ego... or whatever excuses he had at the time go to be with her. Looking back on it now, he knew that it was the moments like that that had solidified the friendship between the two co-workers, and also put chinks in the armor of their marriage.

He hadn't been there in the bad times. How many times did she have to call the night she was attacked… targeted to be the next victim blinded by that maniac? He closed his eyes as he remembered the tears in her voice as she begged him to call her back; then the hostility and disgust in her partner's voice in the messages he'd left demanding that he be there for his own wife. The fact was, her best friend and partner was by her side and like an idiot her own husband wasn't. Looking at her now, he knew that was one of the deadly blows to their marriage.

He wondered where their journeys would take them now that this portion of their lives was over. He was sure that his was much more grim than hers.

_Now she's a lady down on love__  
><em>_She needs somebody to gently pick her up__  
><em>_She's got her freedom, but she'd rather be bound__  
><em>_To man who would love her and never let her down__  
><em>_Now she's a lady down on love_

He heard the music as the song was fading. A lady down on love was certainly what he was seeing as she sat there. Then he saw a familiar form approach her. He watched as the man ran gentle hands over her arms and lean down and whisper softly into her ear. He watched the smile that spread over her features as she turned from the drink she'd been nursing into the arms of the man that had been there for her when her husband hadn't. He saw the grin on the man's face match her own. He couldn't turn away as she wrapped her arms around his neck, his own hands circling her waist. He wished he could hear the words passing between them as she pulled him closer to her, reveling in the embrace he willingly gave. They swayed a little to the music before he finally pulled back a little, looked into her eyes and placed a loving kiss on her lips.

The man in the dark corner couldn't help but look away then. He remembered the softness of her lips, the way her body felt against his. All were memories he had willingly sacrificed to his bad decisions. Glancing at the couple one final time, he saw her turn and look around the bar with finality, still in the arms of her best friend. He could tell by her look, this would be the last time she would step into this bar. It was where they had begun and only fitting that it was where they ended. She turned in the arms of the man who had been there for her all the times he hadn't. He mused that even though he knew how brash and annoying the man could be, there really was no one else he'd rather see his ex-wife with. Despite the man's particular brand of abrasive, there had always been a softness where this special woman was concerned. He watched as he placed a soft kiss to her forehead and settled his hand on the small of her back as they turned to go.

Alec Foster picked up the drink before him to toast the couple as they departed. He knew that he had made Gillian Foster a lady down on her love, but by the looks of things, Cal Lightman was going to make sure that she didn't stay that way.


End file.
